Sanitation News

Starting the week of Jan. 9, the city will begin distributing blue, 96-gallon rollout recycling carts to households with curbside recycling. Residents should not use the carts until April, when all curbside recycling in Winston-Salem will switch to biweekly collection with the rollout carts.

Residents should continue to use their green carry-out bin through the end of March, said Johnnie Taylor, the city sanitation director. “The rollout carts require automated collection trucks that will not enter service until April,” Taylor said. “Residents will receive their carts sometime between January 9 and the end of March, because it will take about three months to delivery all of them. But they need to put the cart aside and continue to use their green carry-out bin until April.”

Through March, residents who live in neighborhoods with curbside recycling and who do not have a green bin may put their recycling in a paper or plastic bag and leave it at the curb.

The city has been testing rollout recycling in pilot neighborhoods for the past three years. “We saw recycling volume increase by 30 percent,” Taylor said. “Residents like the convenience of not having to separate their recycling and of only putting out their recycling every other week.”

When rollout recycling begins April 2, neighborhoods will be designated for “red week” or “blue week” collection. A brochure delivered to households with the carts will indicate their collection week.

Residents in the neighborhoods where the city tested 64-gallon recycling carts will have their carts replaced with the larger 96-gallon carts.